Making Fruit Preserves
Making fruit preserves is not a chore: it’s aromatherapy. The sweet scent of cooked fruit and sugar is gourmet decadence, further enhanced by the smell of vanilla.
Fruit preserves used to be a point of pride among homemakers, a way to demonstrate expert skill and masterful presentation styles.
From using special techniques to prepare the fruit, in order to keep their flesh firm and enhance their color, to unusual and difficult ingredients like green walnuts, green apricots, watermelon rind, pitted currants or rose petals, making fruit preserves was a serious endeavor.
Fruit jellies sit at the pinnacle of this lost art. A successful jelly has to boast a deep jewel tone and perfect clarity, like colored glass. It is sweetly refreshing and holds on to its spoon under ice cold water, straight from the well, the perfect treat for a scorching summer afternoon.
Bright colored fruits high in pectin, flavorful but sour, like currants, plums, quinces, lemons, sour apples, or blackberries, make the best jellies.
If I had to claim a favorite, nothing beats quince.
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